Greetings Unravelers!
It has been a good week for making in my house!
I have a finished, blocked, and all ends-woven-in sweater! In January of 2020, I started Amy Christoffers’ Pheasant Sweater (Ravelry Link). I started out like wildfire knitting all that fun color work fairly quickly and I got past the sleeve divide… and then it languished for a long, long time. I picked it back up in August and, as in all things, a little time and attention and before you know it… there is a finished sweater!
I used the colors Amy used in her version and I could not be happier! They are such perfect autumnal colors! It is light, yet so warm and cozy. I can wear it with a camisole underneath… the Shetland wool is soft. I love the subtle color shifts in the color work and I will be living in this sweater this fall!
Tight, close colors…such perfection!
The other making success I had this week involved baking! I have been trying to make pita bread but have had mixed success… the pouffing of the pitas was hit or miss for me. So I did some research and made some tweaks to my oven temperature, and amount of preheating of my baking steel… and those tweaks… worked!
From the first two…
I baked Pillowy, Puffy Pitas! And they were so delicious! I used Food52’s recipe. My recipe tweaks: After the dough has proofed, I refrigerate the dough and I used it within 36 hours (although I think 48 hours of refrigerator time would be fine.) I take it out about 45 minutes before I want to bake… and upon taking the dough out of the refrigerator, immediately divide the dough as the recipe calls for. I let the divided dough rest on a baking sheet, covered, for 35-40 minutes. I preheat my oven before I divide the dough and put the baking steel (this is the baking steel we have) in about 30 minutes before I am going to bake… so a short preheat for the steel. Once you are ready to bake, things go quickly, I roll out all the pitas on squares of parchment paper (like Erin did here) and I stack them and keep them covered until I begin the baking process which is so incredibly easy. You just drop the parchment squares on the steel and set your timer! It is almost too easy for something so incredibly delicious! Homemade pitas are so much better tasting than any store-bought pitas I have ever tried! I hope I have inspired you to make your own pitas soon!
To the last two…
The reading was a bit slower than last week… I am finding that I need a few days after finishing a book to “digest” it. Which makes what I have just finished more memorable. But I did have one finish this week!
Gold Boy, Emerald Girl by Yiyun Li
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
As in most collections of short stories, I liked some more than others in this collection of stories.
But even the ones I did not like as much as others, were still good.
This is my second “book” by Li and I am enamored of her writing style. She makes me think. She puts me in the shoes of the subject. She changes my focus and my pre-conceived notions.
I am left feeling an urge to read more of Li’s writing. And I very much recommend this collection of short, but so thoughtful, stories.
And that, gentle unravelers, is a very good making week! What is good for you this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave you link below and thank you!
Your sweater is a perfect (and perfectly-named) fall sweater! You’ve finished it at just the right time and it is beautiful. As are those amazing pillowy pitas! I’ve made pitas before and they have puffed up slightly, but nowhere near as high as yours. Congratulations on finding the right tweaks and enjoy your sweater and pitas!
Oh my stars, your Pheasant Sweater is amazing and perfect colors! You will enjoy wearing that sweater for many years!
Beautiful pita pillows…yumm
What a stunning sweater, Kat! I have always loved that pattern — and yours turned out so beautifully that I may be inspired to try one myself (someday). You’re going to love having that new sweater in your cold-weather line-up this year. I’ve never tried making pitas before, but yours look divine. XO
That sweater is simply spectacular! And you finished it at just the right time, especially given that it’s going to get even cooler this weekend. I hope it keeps you very cozy for many years to come!
Your sweater is gorgeous and just perfect for autumn! I hope you enjoy wearing it!
I’ve never tried making pita bread, but yours look delicious.
Gorgeous sweater!!! Love the yoke detail AND it matches my wardrobe, just sayin’.
What a great sweater you made! It makes me wish I liked doing colorwork (almost). And the pita pillows! You had a very successful week!
I love that jumper so so much, it’s simply perfect. Those pita breads look amazing, what do you pop in them? I don’t know thaat author, but she sounds good.
That sweater just screams FALL! I love it and am so impressed with your colorwork! Those pitas look great, too.
Your sweater is GORGEOUS!!! Looking at other color variations on Ravelry, apparently I purchased yarn for the same sweater, in purple. Somewhere there is a swatch. Now that I have lost almost 50 pounds, I will need to revise my size and probably do another swatch. You know, gauge and all. 😉
Question. Where did you find your dress form/mannequin?
The pita bread looks FABULOUS!!! Although, my doctor frowns on me eating any bread, other than the Carb Smart bread, which is a very small step up from CARDBOARD. Ugh.
What a beautiful beautiful sweater. Enjoy wearing it. The bread looks delicious. I’m glad you found the right techniques.
What an incredible week, Kat! Funny–as I started reading your description of the sweater, I said to myself, “I’d live in that this fall.” 🙂
Kudos to you for taking the time to mess with your oven. It’s so worth making the effort to calibrate, but it always takes a couple of fails for me to just do it, for Pete’s sake.
This post is just full of autumn inspiration. xo
Wow — what a gorgeous sweater! I’m so happy that you’ll have that to cozy up in this fall! And those pitas are quite the accomplishment – I am impressed!